She spotted Vadim’s binder containing information on the Petrovich family by the side of the couch, forgotten over the past few days. Vadim had the information in an online backup somewhere else she knew, but he liked seeing the information on paper so he could make connections.
Realizing she wouldn’t be able to sleep, especially with the knowledge Vadim might be out there in God only knew what state, she fixed herself a hot cup of chamomile tea. Eve sat on the kitchen counter, staring at her cellphone screen.
Eve knew some part of her had been flawed, like her mother claimed, for falling hard and fast for a man like Vadim, but she’d lived with a family of killers. Family came first, her father always insisted, but some men had backstabbed him and betrayed him in the end, too. They’d been his flesh and blood, too. Besides, she came to the realization that she had no right judging Vadim.
She gripped her cup, until no more steam came out. The liquid tasted cold on her tongue when she took a sip. Her nerves hadn’t settled at all, but when the front door rattled open, she jumped, ran to it, then halted.
What if it wasn’t Vadim?
A bandaged hand shoved the door open. Relief filled her at the sight of her man, but Vadim practically staggered in. Eve took quick stock. Bloodied, bruised, but her man was alive, and only that mattered. Had he been shot? Hard to tell yet, but she needed to tend to him soon.
She let him lean on her and felt the press of his lips on the side of her neck a moment later.
“You need to sit. Come on.” She led him to the living room couch, bidding him to sit. “Wait here, I’m getting the first aid kit.”
She retrieved the supplies from the bathroom. Eve had some first aid training. She’d thought the skill useful in case one of her father’s men dropped in the house, injured but refused to go to a hospital.
“Take off your shirt and the vest,” she ordered, helping him peel off the soaked fabric. Since he couldn’t reach the straps, she undid his bullet-proof vest. She winced at what lay underneath, drying blood and blossoming bruises.
“It’s not bad as it looks,” he muttered. “Were you always this fussy?”
“Hush, I need to focus.”
She worked in silence for a bit, but had been relieved to see that aside from a few bullets that sliced through skin but didn’t penetrate or rapture any important organ, Vadim was fine. Eve let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She placed the bandages and disinfectant back in the box, and threw away the dirty gauze and bloody cloths, only to find the couch empty.
The door remained open. Heart kicking, she padded out only to see Vadim’s profile under the stars. She approached him, tentatively at first, before wrapping her arms around his waist. He startled, then rubbed at the goosebumps that appeared over her arms.
“You shouldn’t be walking around.”
“Are you ordering me back to bed?” he asked in an amused voice. “No serious injuries.”
She glowered at him, and he turned, spinning her so they looked at each other in the eye. Unable to hold her tears, she let them fall, and pounded her fists against his chest. It felt like punching a wall. Vadim let her, though, until all the anger and frustration melted away.
Vadim closed his hands over her wrists, pulling her close to lick her tears away, before angling her mouth for a rough, wet kiss that made her insides melt. When he pulled away, she stopped crying.
“Do you have any idea how worried I was?” she demanded, only for Vadim to lean in close again, the kiss slow and tender, surprising her.
Vadim pulled away.
“You can’t keep doing that to solve problems,” she complained.
“What about sex?”
She blushed. Eve didn’t often have nightmares anymore. It was as if Vadim’s presence chased all the ghosts and demons away. She slept snugly, with his limbs wrapped possessively around her body, sometimes with his cock buried deep within her. When their bodies were joined, she felt like a new person, stronger and braver.
Eve had loved her family, even though they thought of her as an inconvenience. She’d continue to mourn for them, but when she tried to think of any good memories, she came up with few. Her parents had been too busy to raise Clarissa and her, and none of the family paid much attention to the chubby girl who had no value save the Valentin family name.
She’d felt invisible her entire life until Vadim saw her. One didn’t choose their family, but Eve could choose her man.
Eve leaned against him, and he wrapped those corded arms around her, holding her as long as she needed to be held. Over his shoulder, she saw the thick cluster of trees that made up the walls of their fortress, their home, his and hers. Beyond the forest, was the curve of a mountain, and above it, silver stars streaked across the inky darkness of the night sky.
Beautiful,she thought in wonder. For two souls raised in the underbelly of violence, standing here with the one man who owned her, body and heart, she felt nothing but contentment. Peace. At last Eve could close the door to the past and cast her gaze to the present.
He rested one hand on the curve of her back. “It’s done.”
“Done?”
Oh, she understood Vadim had been honed since young to take lives, but part of her still couldn’t believe the man who’d murdered her family rotted in some unnamed grave.
Vadim nuzzled her neck before answering her.
“Gustav is dead, and without the family head, his lieutenants would be scrambling for power. We’d be safe for a while, but I’ll remain vigilant. Let them come for us. I’ll fucking kill everyone.”
“Will the cycle of vengeance ever end?” Eve asked, although she knew the answer to that. The answer might be never, but it didn’t matter, because as along as she had her man by her side, they were going to be okay.
“I love you,” she murmured, running her hands up his body, resting them over the heart that beat, calm and confident. Hers. This gorgeous and lethal male belonged to her as much as she to him.
Vadim grazed her bottom lip with his teeth. “I fucking love you, too, princess.”